San Francisco, CA
Fortune Tech: The sheer scale | Fortune
Good morning. Extremely lean and mean (well, merry, really) for the rest of this week as we head into our annual winter break.
We’ll hang things up for the year on Dec. 24 and pick things back up on Jan. 5.
Happy holidays. (Yippee-Ki-Yay.) —AN
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What happened when Waymo robotaxis met a San Francisco blackout
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty Images
An extraordinary experiment happened over the weekend in San Francisco.
What would a fleet of autonomous vehicles do when a widespread power outage knocked out traffic lights across one-third of the city?
We quickly found out—and the results were plastered all over social media.
On Saturday afternoon, Waymo vehicles throughout SF opted to stop where they were or pull over and throw on their hazard lights—“blocking intersections” and “compounding gridlock,” observed the San Francisco Standard—leading the Alphabet-owned robotaxi operator to suspend service throughout the city. (It resumed Sunday evening.)
In a statement, Waymo said that its vehicles are “designed to treat non-functional signals as four-way stops” but “the sheer scale of the outage led to instances where vehicles remained stationary longer than usual.”
As locals worked through the outage, a moderate debate about the robotaxi fleet continued online. Was it so wrong to expect Waymo’s vehicles to play it safe when infrastructure stopped working? After all, aren’t human drivers predictably chaotic when things go sideways? What exactly should robotaxis optimize for: traffic flow or citizen safety?
And: Just how safe is stopping if you prompt traffic to go around you?
Waymo resumed service Sunday evening, no doubt grappling with these questions (and what city officials might have to say about them). “We are already learning and improving from this event,” it said. —AN
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—SoftBank cashes out to back OpenAI. The Japanese conglomerate is looking under every rock to fulfill its “all in” OpenAI funding promise.
—Chaos at CISA. A failed, unsanctioned polygraph by its acting director has the U.S. cybersecurity agency in disarray.
—PE firms acquire Clearwater Analytics for $8.4 billion. Permira and Warburg Pincus lead the investor group seeking to buy the fintech firm.
—Uber goes to London. A robotaxi trial in partnership with Baidu will begin in the first half of next year.
—Data center deals reach $61 billion worldwide in 2025, according to S&P Global.
—Chatbots’ uncanny valley. Making AI agents more human-like creates cognitive dissonance and trust issues, researchers say.
—Daylight between David Sacks and tech lobbyists. Tech reps say the AI czar’s push to use Trump’s executive order to suppress state AI regulation is the right idea, wrong execution.
San Francisco, CA
Thousands head to San Francisco’s East Cut for 415 Day Market & Party
On April 15, back in the year 1850, San Francisco was first incorporated as a city. Each year on April 15, many in San Francisco celebrate 415 day, honoring that anniversary and the date that aligns with the city’s area code. Wednesday, thousands of people headed to The Crossing at East Cut for a night market to ring in the occasion.
This night market was hosted by San Francisco-based record label EMPIRE along with the East Cut Community Benefit District. The event brought a fleet of food trucks and local vendors to the plaza at The Crossing at East Cut, as well as musical talent performing throughout the evening. This night market was free for attendees and drew in people of all ages, many of whom were decked out in their most San Francisco-inspired outfits.
“We are so honored to have this happening here at The Crossing at East Cut, to be welcoming people from across the city, from across the Bay Area, to come see what downtown can be, and to celebrate the beauty of San Francisco,” said Andrew Robinson, the executive director of the East Cut Community Benefit District. Robinson explained that this was the Benefit District’s first time helping to put on the 415 Day celebration. He noted that the event brought in welcome business and foot traffic to the neighborhood.
EMPIRE CEO Ghazi Shami, who is a San Francisco native, was at the event too. Shami explained to NBC Bay Area that the event is a chance to put a spotlight on the creative community in San Francisco.
“I’m a product of my environment, I love San Francisco,” Shami said.
“It’s perfect time to celebrate, like our cultural diversity, music, food, street fashion, all the things that make San Francisco unique,” he said.
Shami added that he hopes next year to see even more 415 Day celebrations across San Francisco.
“I hope this becomes something that everybody adopts and celebrates no matter where you’re from,” he said.
The crowds at the event continued to grow throughout the night. People stopped to take photos with a giant, illuminated “415 Day” sign at the plaza.
“Just seeing this community come together, the diversity, the music, the food, we got it all in San Francisco,” said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, addressing the crowd at the start of the event.
An artist who goes by the name Mando told NBC Bay Area he though the event was “well orchestrated,” he enjoyed the food, drinks, and entertainment.
Mando, who lives in San Francisco, said he thinks 415 Day is an important holiday for the city.
“I think celebrating 415 Day is like a religion, if you’re from the city you basically gotta live it up today, today is the day,” he said.
“The bridge, the city, the everything, the music, the culture, it’s a beautiful thing, today’s the day to just let it all out and not care about nothing,” he continued.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco pedestrian’s hit-and-run death investigated as a homicide
A collision that killed a pedestrian in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood is being investigated as a homicide, police said.
The crash was reported around 3:23 p.m. Monday, April 13, in front of a gas station at Mission Street and Van Ness Avenue. A person described as elderly was dead; the car had left the scene, the police said.
The suspect vehicle was stopped by San Francisco sheriff’s deputies near Potrero Avenue and 18th Street, about a mile from the crash site, the police said. The driver, a 30-year-old San Francisco man, was arrested on suspicion of homicide and felony hit-and-run with injury.
The San Francisco Standard obtained video that shows the pedestrian stepping into the street to go around a Mercedes-Benz sedan that is blocking the sidewalk at the gas station’s driveway. As the pedestrian passes in front of the car, the driver accelerates. The pedestrian is thrown onto the hood, then falls under the wheels and is dragged for several feet.
The suspect’s attorney told the Standard that his client, whose wife and two children were in the car, “believed his family was about to be violently attacked” and said that witness accounts corroborated the driver’s claim that someone had “aggressively” approached the car.
The pedestrian was identified by the medical examiner as Dannielle Spillman, 74.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco taqueria El Faro looks to sell, saying their rent has nearly doubled
San Francisco taqueria El Faro, credited with inventing the super burrito, may be forced to sell its restaurant, citing an extreme rent increase.
Esther Harkreader has lived in the Mission District neighborhood for 20 years. For her, it’s like home.
“I don’t even have to say anything. I just walk in and say, ‘Hi.’ And they say, ‘How many?’ And they make my food. They know me. They are good neighbors,” Harkreader said.
El Faro has been in the Mission since 1961, known for its famous super burrito. But as the economy booms in San Francisco, so does the rent. The daughter of the family-owned business says her mother was caught off guard by the rent increase.
“To our surprise, it was almost a double raise, so it was like 73% increase after we did some math,” Patricia Kocourek. “(My mother) spent her adult life coming from Mexico here. She’s very attached sentimentally.”
Customers, like Harkreader, can feel that community connection firsthand.
“She has given me free burritos on my birthday before, and they’ve become good friends, I feel like, you know? I read the story last night, and I almost cried,” Harkreader said.
Ce’Myah Bacchus attends a nearby school in the neighborhood and says the owners always take care of her, even when she is short on cash.
“I’m pretty sad, honestly, because it’s been here for so long. The burritos are so great. And the people there are just so nice. Any time I don’t have enough, they give me a discount,” Bacchus said.
The restaurant was able to pay rent for the month of April, but they say the future remains uncertain.
Currently, El Faro is listed on Facebook Marketplace for $225,000. They say so far, they haven’t gotten any offers close to their asking price.
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